After some strong riding in support of the team’s goals at AlUla Tour in the opening stages, Nils Eekhoff was once again riding as part of the sprint train in the closing part of stage three; positioning Fabio Jakobsen for the finale.
After a rider went down in front of him Nils had to swerve and headed towards the raised pavement. Trying to unclip and stop himself, he unfortunately had nowhere to go and came off his bike with impact. Immediately treated by race medical staff Nils was taken to hospital where he underwent further examinations.
Team Picnic PostNL doctor Camiel Aldershof explained more about the outcome of those assessments: “Nils sustained a heavy impact in the crash, and he has broken one tooth and has a fracture in his jaw. For now, he has been cleared and discharged by the local hospital but when he returns to the Netherlands we will conduct further assessments on him here with our specialists to explore whether any surgery is needed. Due to the nature of the injuries we estimate that he will be off the bike for six to eight weeks, but of course this can all change depending on those additional assessments.”